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A sob tore from my chest as I pushed to my knees. “Please, Landers.Please, come back to me,” I begged him.

From the corner of my eye, I could see Wren and Dukovich dragging Mara up the side of Nithra as Ata and Andrues cleared the last of the living dead from the square. A roar sounded from behind Landers as the copper dragon finally pushed back to its feet. It was weak, struggling to stand as blood poured from the wound around its neck.

Child, we cannot wait,Nithra said as her golden eyes met with mine, urgent and imploring.

Tears blurred my vision as I turned my focus back to Landers and pushed to my feet. “I won’t leave without you.I love you,” I sobbed as I looked up at him.

For a heartbeat, he hesitated.

Hope flared in my chest for the briefest of moments before a snarl burst from his chest and he charged.

I held my ground, magic building in my palms as I prepared for the impact.

But it never came.

At the last second, Landers was wrenched to the side, his massive body slamming into the earth mere feet from me. A keening cry tore from the depths of his belly, so full of anguish that I could feel my soul ache.

But it wasn’t just mine. It was his—I was feeling the ache in his soul reverberate off my bones.

I ran to him, skidding to my knees as my hands reached for his snout. My fingers collided with his scales as my eyes fell to the chain and thick iron collar that had clasped around his neck.

I clawed at it, my nails breaking and bleeding as I tried to pry it from his body. “Help me!” I screamed, wrapping my shadows around it and trying to break it off of him. “It’s killing him! Help me!” The words were a wail as they ripped from my throat, my tears falling onto his scales.

Hyacinth,his voice rasped like a broken whisper down the fastening.

“I'm here,” I cried, pressing my forehead to his snout as his smoke bellowed from his nose. “I’m here. I’m not going anywhere.”

A groan slipped down the fastening before he spoke again.You have to. You have to leave me.

Pain was threaded into every word he said as it echoed in my head.

“No! I won’t. I can’t, Landers. I can’t.” Andrues’s hand clamped around my arm as the words fell from my lips in a body-wracking sob. I thrashed against him, kicking and screaming as I tried to claw from his grasp.

Your realm needs you. Our people need their Queen,Landers said down the fastening, and I could hear it in his voice. His strength was fading.I love you, Darkness.

The fastening fell silent and a harrowing scream erupted from my chest as Andrues’s arms wrapped around my waist, dragging me away from him. Another iron chain appeared out of the fire and smoke as a figure stepped through the flames. A vile smile slithered onto her face, her fingers wrapped tight around the ends of Landers’s restraints.

“Get off of me!” I screamed. “I cannot leave him! Let me go!” Shadows shot from my back, knocking Andrues away from me as I sprinted back toward Landers.

Andrues’s fingers caught on my arm, yanking me backward again as another set of hands clasped around my shoulders, tightening around me as they pulled me back. Scream after scream ripped from me as arrows flung from Ata’s bow, stopping the next wave of living dead that were rushing toward us as Wren and Andrues tried to wrangle me onto Nithra’s back.

“Ammord’s army is here. The High Priestesses are here. We have to leave.” Wren’s voice sounded in my ear between my screams as I dug my nails into the arms wrapped around me.

Tears poured from my eyes as I watched another chain wrap around Landers’s body, pained roars falling from his snout. My heart was cracking, breaking with every second, with every beat it took.

Ata frantically turned, reaching for us as Nithra lifted from the ground. Dukovich caught her hand in his as Nithra’s wings beat against the air. A screech tore from the depths of my being as I watched a chain fly through the air and latch itself to Ata’s leg as Nithra soared into the skies.

Her eyes caught on mine for only a second, fear bleeding into them.

“No!” The word was a shriek as the chain ripped Ata away.

Dukovich did not let go of her as he slipped from Nithra’s back and wrapped his body around hers, bracing and blocking Ata from the impact. They fell to the ground below us, growing smaller and smaller with every beat of Nithra’s wings.

“We have to go back! We cannot leave them, we have to go back,” I wailed, rocking back and forth as Andrues’s arms tightened around me.

I could feel it against my back—the sob that left his own chest.

His tears fell onto my shoulder and the world shattered in an instant. A sharp guttural cry ripped through my lungs, raw and unrestrained, echoing into the burning world around us.